European Court upholds employee’s right to wear ‘symbol of faith’ at work

Updated: January 15, 2013 23:48 IST
| Hasan Suroor

In a significant ruling, described by Britain’s faith groups as a “victory” for religious beliefs and a setback for “aggressive” secularism, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday upheld the right of a British Airways’ (BA) woman employee to wear a cross to work.

It said that Nadia Eweida (60), a practising Coptic Christian, suffered religious discrimination when BA banned her from wearing a small silver cross to work citing its uniform policy which did not permit displaying items of jewellery.

The court ordered the British Government to pay her £1,600 in damages and £25,000 to cover costs. It said the British authorities “failed” sufficiently to protect her rights under Article 9 of the ECHR, which guarantees freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

Ms. Eweida , who went to ECHR after failing to get redress from courts in Britain, said she was “jumping with joy”.

The case had polarised opinion along religious and secular lines with leading Church figures describing BA’s policy as an “attack” on Christianity.

In a sign of the huge interest it had aroused, Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted, “Delighted that principle of wearing religious symbols at work has been upheld — ppl [people] shouldn’t suffer discrimination due to religious beliefs.”

Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights group Liberty, called the ruling “an excellent result for equal treatment, religious freedom and common sense”.

The National Secular Society said it remained opposed to display of religious fervour in public.

BA said that it had changed its uniform policy following the uproar over the Eweida case in 2006, and that since 2007 she and other employees were allowed to wear “symbols of faith” to work. Ms. Eweida returned to work in customer services at Heathrow Airport in 2007 after the change in policy.

Three other Christians — Lillian Ladele, Shirley Chaplin, and Gary McFarlane — who also claimed religious discrimination at work lost their appeals.